14年12月英语六级真题(第3套)(11)
2014年12月大学英语六级考试真题(三)
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。
Part Ⅱ Listening Comprehension(30 minutes)
Section A
1. A．Proceed in his own way. B． Stick to the original plan.
C. Compromise with his colleague.D． Try to change his colleague's mind.
2. A．Mary has a keen eye for style.B． Nancy regrets buying the dress.
C． Nancy and Mary went shopping together in Rome.
D． Nancy and Mary like to follow the latest fashion.
3. A．Wash the dishes. B． Go to the theatre.
C． Pick up George and Martha.D． Take her daughter to hospital.
4. A．She enjoys making up stories about other people.
B． She can never keep anything to herself for long.
C． She is eager to share news with the woman.
D． She is the best informed woman in town.
5. A．A car dealer. B． A mechanic.
C． A driving examiner.D． A technical consultant.
6. A．The shopping mall has been deserted recently.
B． Shoppers can only find good stores in the mall.
C． Lots of people moved out of the downtown area.
D． There isn't much business downtown nowadays.
7. A．He will help the woman with her reading.
B． The lounge is not a place for him to study in.
C． He feels sleepy whenever he tries to study.
D． A cozy place is rather hard to find on campus.
8. A．To protect her from getting scratches. B． To help relieve her of the pain. C． To prevent mosquito bites.D． To avoid getting sunburnt.
Questions 9 to 12 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
9. A．In a studio. B． In a clothing store.
C． At a beach resort.D． At a fashion show.
10. A．To live there permanently.
B． To stay there for half a year.
C． To find a better job to support herself.
D． To sell leather goods for a British company.
11. A．Designing fashion items for several companies.
B． Modeling for a world-famous Italian company.
C． Working as an employee for Ferragamo.
D． Serving as a sales agent for Burberrys.
12. A．It has seen a steady decline in .its profits.
B． It has become much more competitive.
C． It has lost many customers to foreign companies.
D． It has attracted a lot more designers from abroad.
Questions 13 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
13. A．It helps her to attract more public attention.
B．It improves her chance of getting promoted.
C． It strengthens her relationship with students.
D．It enables her to understand people better.
14. A．Passively. B． Positively.C． Skeptically. D． Sensitively.
15. A．It keeps haunting her day and night.
B．Her teaching was somewhat affected by it.
C． It vanishes the moment she steps into her role.
Ｄ． Her mind goes blank once she gets on the stage.
Section B
Passage One
Questions 16 to 19 are based on the passage you have just heard.
16. A．To win over the majority of passengers from airlines in twenty years. B． To reform railroad management in western European countries.
C． To electrify the railway lines between major European cities.
Ｄ． To set up an express train network throughout Europe.
17. A．Major European airlines will go bankrupt.
B． Europeans will pay much less for traveling.
C． Traveling time by train between major European cities will be cut by half. D． Trains will become the safest and most efficient means of travel in Europe.
18. A．Train travel will prove much more comfortable than air travel.
B． Passengers will feel much safer on board a train than on a plane.
C．Rail transport will be environmentally friendlier than air transport.
D． Traveling by train may be as quick as, or even quicker than, by air.
19. A．In 1981.B． In 1989. C． In 1990. Ｄ． In 2000.
Passage Two
Questions 20 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.
20. A．There can be no speedy recovery for mental patients.
B．Approaches to healing patients are essentially the same.
C． The mind and body should be taken as an integral whole.
D． There is no clear division of labor in the medical profession.
21. A．A doctor's fame strengthens the patients' faith in them.
B． Abuse of medicines is widespread in many urban hospitals.
C． One third of the patients depend on harmless substances for cure.
D． A patient's expectations of a drug have an effect on their recovery.
22. A．Expensive drugs may not prove the most effective.
B． The workings of the mind may help patients recover.
C． Doctors often exaggerate the effect of their remedies.
D． Most illnesses can be cured without medication.
Passage Three
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.
23. A．Enjoying strong feelings and emotions.
B． Defying all dangers when they have to.
C． Being fond of making sensational news.
D． Dreaming of becoming famous one day.2
4. A．Working in an emergency room.B． Watching horror movies.
C． Listening to rock music.D． Doing daily routines.
25. A．A rock climber. B． A psychologist. "
C． A resident doctor. D． A career consultant.
Section C
If you're like most people, you've indulged in fake listening many times. You go to history class, sit inthe third row, and look squarely at the instructor as she speaks. But your mind is far away,26inthe clouds of pleasant daydreams. Occasionally you come back to earth: The instructor writes animportant term on the chalkboard, and you 27copy it in your notebook. Every once in a while theinstructor makes a 28remark, causing others in the class to laugh. You smile politely, pretendingthat you've heard the remark and found it mildly humorous. You have a vague sense of 29that youaren't paying close attention, but you tell yourself that any material you miss can 30from a friend'snotes. Besides, the instructor's talking about road 31in ancient Rome, and nothing could be moreboring. So back you go into your private little world. Only later do you realize you've missed importantinformation for a test.
Fake listening may be easily exposed, since many speakers 32facial cues and can tell if you'remerely pretending to listen. Your blank expression and the faraway look in your eyes are the cues that33your inattentiveness.
Even if you're not exposed, there's another reason to avoid fakery: It's easy for this34tobecome a habit. For some people, the habit is so deeply rooted that they automatically start daydreamingwhen a speaker begins talking on something35or uninteresting. As a result, they miss lots ofvaluable information.
Part Ⅲ R eading Comprehension (40 minutes)
Section A
Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.
It was 10 years ago, on a warm July night, that a newborn lamb took her first breath in a small shed
in Scotland. From the outside, she looked no different from thousands of other sheep
born on 36farms. But Dolly, as the world soon came to realize, was no 37lamb. She was cloned from a singlecell of an adult female sheep,38long-held scientific dogma that had declared such a thingbiologically impossible.
A decade later, scientists are starting to come to grips with just how different Dolly was. Dozens ofanimals have been cloned since that first lamb_mice, cats, cows and, most recently, a dog--and it'sbecoming 39clear that they are all, in one way or another, defective.ctive.
It's 40to think of clones as perfect carbon copies of the original. It turns out, though, tha!there are various degrees of genetic41. That may come as a shock to people who have paidthousands of dollars to clone a pet cat only to discover that the baby cat looks and behaves 42liketheir beloved pet--with a different-color coat of fur, perhaps, or a 43different attitude toward itshuman hosts.
And these are just the obvious differences. Not only are clones 44from the original template(模板) by time, but they are also the product of an unnatural molecular mechanism that turns out not to bevery good at making 45copies. In fact, the process can embed small flaws in the genes of clonesthat scientists are onlv now discovering
Aabstract F．identical K．OverturningBCompletely.increasinglyL． SeparatedC． deserted H． miniature M． surrounding
D． DuplicationINothingNsystematically E .everything． G ordinary O． tempting Section B
Should Single-Sex Education Be Eliminated?
A．Why is a neuroscientist here debating single-sex schooling? Honestly, I had no fixed ideas on the topicwhen I started researching it for my book, Pink Brain, Blue Brain. But any discussion of genderdifferences in children inevitably leads to this debate, so I felt compelled to dive into the research dataon single-sex schooling.
I read every study I could, weighed the existing evidence, and ultimatelyconcluded that single-sex education is not the answer to gender gaps in achievement--or the best wayforward for today's young people. After my book was published, I met several developmental andcognitive psychologists whose work was addressing gender and education from different angles, and wepublished a peer-reviewed Education Forum piece in Science magazine with the provocative title, "ThePseudoscience of Single-Sex Education."
B．We showed that three lines of research used to justify single-sex schooling--educational, neuroscience,and social psychology--all fail to support its alleged benefits, and so the widely-held view that genderseparation is somehow better for boys, girls, or both is nothing more than a myth.
The Research on Academic Outcomes
C． First, we reviewed the extensive educational research that has compared academic outcomes in studentsattending single-sex versus coeducational schools. The overwhelming conclusion when you put thisenormous literature together is that there is no clear academic advantage of sitting in all-female or all-male classes, in spite of much popular belief to the contrary. I base this conclusion not on any
individualstudy, but on large-scale and systematic reviews of thousands of studies conducted in every major English-speaking country.
Ｄ． Of course, there're many excellent single-sex schools out there, but as these careful research reviews havedemonstrated, it's not their single-sex composition that makes them excellent. It's all the otheradvantages that are typically packed into such schools, such as financial resources, quality of the faculty,and pro-academic culture, along with the family background and pre-selected ability of the studentsthemselves that determine their outcomes.
E． A case in point is the study by Lirnda Sax at UCLA, who used data from a large national survey of collegefreshmen to evaluate the effect of single-sex versus coeducational high schools. Commissioned by theNational Coalition of Girls' Schools, the raw findings look pretty good for the funders--higher SATscores and a stronger academic orientation among women who had attended all girls' high schools (menweren't studieC．. However, once the researchers controlled for both student and school attributes--measures such as family income, parents' education, and school resources--most of these effects were
erased or diminished.
F． When it comes to boys in particular, the data show that single-sex education is distinctly unhelpful forthem. Among the minority of studies that have reported advantages of single-sex schooling, virtually allof them were studies of girls. There're no rigorous studies in the United States that find single-sexschooling is better for boys, and in fact, a separate line of research by economists has shown both boysand girls exhibit greater cognitive growth over the school year based on the "dose" of girls in a classroom.In fact, boys benefit even more than girls from having larger numbers of female classmates. So single-sexschooling is really not the answer to the current "boy crisis" in education.
Brain and Cognitive Development
G． The second line of research often used to justify single-sex education falls squarely within my area ofexpertise: brain and cognitive development. It's been more than a decade now since the "brain sexmovement" began infiltrating (渗入) our schools, and there are literally hundreds of schools caught up inthe fad (新潮). Public schools in Wisconsin, Indiana, Florida and many other states now proudly declareon their websites that they separate boys and girls because "research solidly indicates that boys and girlslearn differently," due to "hard-wired" differences in their brains, eyes, ears, autonomic nervoussystems, and more.
H． All of these statements can be traced to just a few would-be neuroscientists, especially physician LeonardSax and therapist Michael Gurian. Each gives lectures, runs conferences, and does a lot of professionaldevelopment on so-called "gender-specific learning." [ analyzed their various claims about sex differencesin hearing, vision, language, math, stress responses, and "learning styles" in my book and a long peer-reviewed paper. Other neuroscientists and psychologists have similarly exposed their work. In short, themechanisms by which our brains learn language, math, physics, and every other subject don't differbetween boys and girls. Of course, learning does vary a lot between individual students, but
researchreliably shows that this variance is far greater within populations of boys or girls than between the twosexes.
I． The equal protection clause of the US Constitution prohibits separation of students by sex in publiceducation that's based on precisely this kind of "overbroad generalizations about the different talents,capacities, or preferences of males and females." And the reason it is prohibited is because it leads fartoo easily to stereotyping and sex discrimination.
Social Developmental Psychology
J． That brings me to the third area of research which fails to support single-sex schooling and indeed
suggests the practice is actually harmful: social developmental psychology. K． It's a well-proven finding in social psychology that segregation promotes stereotyping and prejudice,whereas intergroup contact reduces them--and the results are the same whether you divide groups byrace, age, gender, body mass index, sexual orientation, or any other category. What's more, childrenare especially vulnerable to this kind of bias, because they are dependent on adults for learning whichsocial categories are important and why we divide people into different groups. L．You don't have to look far to find evidence of stereotyping and sex discrimination in single-sex schools.There was the failed single-sex experiment in California, where six school districts used generous stategrants to set up separatc boys' and girls' academics in the late 1990s. Once boys and girls weresegregated, teachers resorted to traditional gender stereotypes to run their classes, and within just threeyears, five of the six districts had gone back to coeducation.
M．At the same time, researchers are increasingly discovering benefits of gender interaction in youth. Alarge British study found that children with other-sex older siblings (兄弟姐妹) exhibit less stereotypicalplay than children with same-sex older siblings, such as girls who like sports and building toys and boyswho like art and dramatic play. Another study of high school social networks found less bullying andaggression the higher the density of mixed-sex friendships within a given adolescent network. Then thereis the finding we cited in our Science paper of higher divorce and depression rates among a large group ofBritish men who attended single-sex schools as teenagers, which might be explained by the lack ofopportunity to learn about relationships during their formative years.
N． Whether in nursery school, high school, or the business world, gender segregation narrows ourperceptions of each other, facilitating stereotyping and sexist attitudes. It's very simple: the more westructure children and adolescents' environment around gender distinctions and separation, the more they
will use these categories as the primary basis for understanding themselves and others.
O． Gender is an important issue in education. There are gaps in reading, writing, and science achievementthat should be narrower. There are gaps in career choice that should be narrower--if we really want tomaximize human potential and American economic growth. But stereotyping boys and girls andseoarating them in the name of fictitious (虚拟的) brain differences is never going to close these gaps.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
46. Hundreds of schools separate boys from girls in class on the alleged brain and cognitive differences.
47. A review of extensive educational research shows no obvious academic advantage of single-sex schooling.
48. The author did not have any fixed ideas on single-sex education when she began her research on thesubject.
49. Research found men who attended single-sex schools in their teens were more likely to suffer fromdepression.
50. Studies in social psychology have shown segregation in school education has a negative impact onchildren.
51. Reviews of research indicate there are more differences in brain and cognitive development within the same sex than between different sexes.
52. The findings of the national survey of college freshmen about the impact of single-sex schooling fail totake into account student and school attributes. 53. It wasn't long before most of the school districts that experimented with single-sex education abandonedthe practice.
54. Boys from coeducational classes demonstrate greater cognitive abilities according to the economists'research.
55. As careful research reviews show, academic excellence in some single-sex schools is attributed to otherfactors than single-sex education.
Section C
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinishedstatements. For each of them there are four choices marked A．,B． , C． and Ｄ．. You should decide on thebest choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage One Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
International governments' inaction concerning sustainable development is clearly worrying but theproactive (主动出击的) approaches of some leading-edge companies are encouraging. Toyota, Wal-Mart,DuPont, M&S and General Electric have made tackling environmental wastes a key economic driver.
DuPont committed itself to a 65% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the 10 years prior to 2010.By 2007, DuPont was saving $2.2 billion a year through energy efficiency, the same as its total declaredprofits that year. General Electric aims to reduce the energy intensity of its operations by 50% by 2015.They have invested heavily in projects designed to change the way of using and conserving energy. Companies like Toyota and Wal-Mart are not committing to environmental goals out of the goodnessof their hearts. The reason for their actions is a simple yet powerful realisation that the environmental andeconomic footprints fit well together. When M&S launched its "Plan A" sustainability programme in 2007,it was believed that it would cost over ~200 million in the first five years. However, the initiative hadgenerated ~105 million by 2011/12.
When we prevent physical waste, increase energy efficiency or improve resource productivity, wesave money, improve profitability and enhance competitiveness. In
fact, there are often huge "quick win"opportunities, thanks to years of neglect. However, there is a considerable gap between leading-edge companies and the rest of the pack. Thereare far too many companies still delaying creating a lean and green business system, arguing that it willcost money or require sizable capital investments. They remain stuck in the "environment is cost"mentality. Being environmentally friendly does not have to cost money. In fact, going beyond compliancesaves cost at the same time that it generates cash, provided that management adopts the new lean andgreen model.
Lean means doing more with less. Nonetheless, in most companies, economic and environmental
continuous improvement is viewed as being in conflict with each other. This is one of the biggestopportunities missed across most industries. The size of the opportunity is enormous, The 3% Reportrecently published by World Wildlife Fund and CDP shows that the economic prize for curbing carbonemissions in the US economy is $780 billion between now and 2020. It suggests that one of the biggestlevers for delivering this opportunity is "increased efficiency through management and behaviouralchange"--in other words, lean and green management.
Some 50 studies show that companies that commit to such aspirational goals as zero waste, zeroharmful emissions, and zero use of non-renewable resources are financially outperforming theircompetitors. Conversely, it was found that climate disruption is already costing $1.2 trillion annually,cutting global GDP by 1.6%. Unaddressed, this will double by 2030.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
56. What does the author say about some leading-edge companies?
A．They operate in accordance with government policies.
B． They take initiatives in handling environmental wastes.
C． They are key drivers in their nations' economic growth.
D． They are major contributors to environmental problems.
57. What motivates Toyota and Wal-Mart to make commitments to environmental protection?
A．The goodness of their hearts.
B． A strong sense of responsibility.
C． The desire to generate profits.
D． Pressure from environmentalists.
58. Why are so many companies reluctant to create an environment-friendly business system?
A．They are bent on making quick money.
B． They do not have the capital for the investment.
D． They believe building such a system is too costly.
C． They lack the incentive to change business practices.
59. What is said about the lean and green model of business?A．It helps businesses to save and gain at the same time.
B．It is affordable only for a few leading-edge companies.
C． It is likely to start a new round of intense competition.
D． It will take a long time for all companies to embrace it.
60. What is the finding of the studies about companies committed to environmental goals?
A．They have greatly enhanced their sense of social responsibility.
B． They do much better than their counterparts in terms of revenues.
C． They have abandoned all the outdated equipment and technology.
D． They make greater contributions to human progress than their rivals. Passage Two
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
If you asked me to describe the rising philosophy of the day, I'd say it is data-ism. We now have theability to gather huge amounts of data. This ability seems to carry with it certain cultural assumptions--that everything that can be measured should be measured; that data is a transparent and reliable lens thatallows us to filter out emotionalism and ideology; that data will help us do remarkable things--like foretellthe future.
Over the next years, I'm hoping to get a better grip on some of the questions raised by the datarevolution: In what situations should we rely on intuitive pattern recognition and in which situations shouldwe ignore intuition and follow the data? What kinds of events are predictable using statistical analysis andwhat sorts of events are not?
I confess I enter this in a skeptical frame of mind, believing that we tend to get carried away in ourdesire to reduce everything to the quantifiable. But at the outset let me celebrate two things data doesreally well.
First, it's really good at exposing when our intuitive view of reality is wrong. For example, nearlyevery person who runs for political office has an intuitive sense that they can powerfully influence theirodds of winning the election if they can just raise and spend more money. But this is largely wrong.
After the 2006 election, Sean Trende constructed a graph comparing the incumbent (在任者的)
campaign spending advantages with their eventual margins of victory. There was barely any relationshipbetween more spending and a bigger victory.
Likewise, many teachers have an intuitive sense that different students have different learningstyles: some are verbal and some are visual; some are linear, some are holistic (整体的). Teachersimagine they will improve outcomes if they tailor their presentations to each student. But there's noevidence to support this either. Second, data can illuminate patterns of behavior we haven't yet noticed. For example, I've alwaysassumed people who frequently use words like "I,""me," and "mine" are probably more self-centeredthan people who don't. But as James Pennebaker of the University of Texas notes in his book, The SecretLife of Pronouns, when people are feeling confident, they are focused on the task at hand, not onthemselves. High-status, confident people use fewer "I" words, not more.
Our brains often don't notice subtle verbal patterns, but Pennebaker's computers can. Youngerwriters use more negative and past-tense words than older writers who use more positive and future-tensewords.
In sum, the data revolution is giving us wonderful ways to understand the present and the past. Will it
transform our ability to predict and make decisions about the future? We'll see. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
61. What do data-ists assume they can do?
A．Transform people's cultural identity.
B． Change the way future events unfold.
C． Get a firm grip on the most important issues.
D． Eliminate emotional and ideological bias.
62. What do people running for political office think they can do?
A．Use data analysis to predict the election result.
B． Win the election if they can raise enough funds.
C． Manipulate public opinion with favorable data.
D． Increase the chances of winning by foul means.
63. Why do many teachers favor the idea of tailoring their presentations to different students?
A．They think students prefer flexible teaching methods.
B．They will be able to try different approaches.
C． They believe students' learning styles vary.
D． They can accommodate students with special needs.
64. What does James Pennebaker reveal in The Secret Life of Pronouns?
A．The importance of using pronouns properly.
B． Repeated use of first-person pronouns by self-centered people.
C． Frequent use of pronouns and future tense by young people.
D． A pattern in confident people's use of pronouns.
65. Why is the author skeptical of the data revolution?
A．Data may not be easily accessible.
B． Errors may occur with large data samples.
C． Data cannot always do what we imagine it can.
D． Some data may turn out to be outdated.
PartⅣ Translation(30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. Youshould write your answer on ,Answer Sheet 2.
中国将努力确保到2015年就业者接受过平均13．3年的教育。如果这一目标得以实现，今后大部分进入劳动力市场的人都须获得大学文凭。
在未来几年，中国将着力增加职业学院的招生人数；除了关注高等教育之外，还将寻找新的突破以确保教育制度更加公平。中国正在努力最佳地利用教育资源，这样农村和欠发达地区将获得更多的支持。教育部还决定改善欠发达地区学生的营养，并为外来务工人员的子女提供在城市接受教育的同等机会。
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。